Swiss Daybook: UBS Job Cuts, Lindt & Spruengli, GAM Holding

UBS AG (UBSN), Switzerland’s biggest bank, said it plans to cut about 3,500 jobs to help reduce annual expenses by 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.5 billion)

“Of the expected 3,500 staff reductions, approximately 45 percent will come from the Investment Bank, 35 percent from Wealth Management & Swiss Bank, 10 percent from Global Asset Management, and 10 percent from Wealth Management Americas,” the Zurich-based bank said in an e-mailed statement today.

EQUITIES: *Lindt & Spruengli AG (LISN) had net income of 32.1 million Swiss francs during the first half *GAM Holding said the company had 600 million francs in net new assets in the first half while underlying net profit was 100.4 million francs.

ECONOMY/GOVERNMENT: *Government publishes trade balance, import-export data at 8 a.m. *Switzerland sells six-month bills

MARKETS: *The SMI rose 1 percent to 5,144.02 *The SPI climbed 0.9 percent to 4,680.95 *The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.8 percent to 224.90 *The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index gained 1.3 percent until 7:31 a.m. Zurich time *Euro-franc traded at 1.1337 at 7:32 a.m. Zurich time

To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Leigh Baldwin at lbaldwin3@bloomberg.net; Klaus Wille in Zurich at kwille@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angela Cullen at acullen8@bloomberg.net